One of the most critical issues for architects is to ensure that building design addresses fire-safety issues. Use of fire rated drywall constructions have increasingly become popular in modern building designs due to the flexibility they offer. The fire-resistance rating classifies the ability of an assembly to confine and isolate fire within a zone comprised of fire-resistance rated walls, ceilings and floor assemblies. The ratings relate to fire tests designed to determine how quickly fire can raise the temperature to unacceptable levels. Fire-rated assemblies are tested and certified in their entirety installed in a Firewall. Whenever an access opening through such fire rated drywall structure is desired the continuity of fire rating gets discontinued and architects/construction professionals face the challenge of providing doors that meet fire rating requirements and yet satisfy aesthetics, as much as possible.
Conventional Access doors are available in the market that are such made that do not blend with the environment and more importantly are not fire rated. There is no such door available which blends with surrounding drywall finishes to satisfy aesthetics and yet meets fire rating requirements with temperature rise criterion to ensure continuity of fire-safe constructions.
Having realized this gap in market, Nelson Industrial Inc.—the manufacturer of ACUDOR brand of access doors, dedicated itself to innovate, design and develop a new model FW-5015 Access Door. Intertek Testing Services NA Ltd., Canada have certified that FW-5015 complies with UL 10B (2009) or CAN/ULC S104 (2010) for a 90 minute rating including a maximum 250° C. temperature rise over 30 minutes.